Since President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January, he’s had to operate under a very dark cloud in Washington, D.C. A dark cloud of smoke, if you will.

Senate Republicans have been using every dirty trick they can in an effort to derail the president’s new policies. The GOP’s latest ploy will have them filibuster the confirmations of Obama’s legal appointments if he goes public with President Bush’s set of four memos that apparently granted authority for the brutal treatment of political prisoners.

It’s been a huge buzzkill for me, as someone who voted for Obama and would like to see national politics run smoothly. I think Obama is right to go public with the torture memos, but he needs to keep everyone cool so his legal appointees can get to work and our country can get back on track. I think I can help Obama do this, because even if I don’t know a lot about political science, I know a lot about weed.

He might not realize this, but Obama’s problems are happening at the perfect time of year to mend fences. It’s almost April 20, otherwise known as “4/20,” the counterculture holiday best suited for going outside to play Frisbee, listening to live Phish bootlegs and hanging out with your best “buds.” If Obama were to take advantage of my favorite holiday, it would either be a really smart move or the stupidest thing he has ever tried.

So, here’s the thing: Obama should go on “The O’Reilly Factor” on 4/20.

I think that an impromptu, Monday night edition of “The Factor” starring Obama would be such a ratings boom that O’Reilly would agree to almost any stipulation in order to feature the president. Given the theme of that special date, the stipulation would be O’Reilly smoking with Obama.

If smoking in the Fox News studio is a problem because of legal issues, O’Reilly can bring “The Factor” to my basement. It’ll be way more chill than his set in New York City anyway; I’ve got a blacklight Johnny Depp poster from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a box of Nag Champa and a whole bunch of different cereal brands. I’ll just tell my mom that the smell is O’Reilly’s cologne.

After they smoke out, Obama and O’Reilly should not sit around and repeat their favorite quotes from “The Empire Strikes Back,” although that is definitely good times. They need to get down to business.

Obama’s EuroTrip

O’Reilly would definitely earn some brownie points with Obama and the American public if he asked the president about what he did on his recent tour of Europe. Obama recently traveled to five countries, three international summits, one-on-one meetings with at least 17 leaders, two question-and-answer sessions with regular-folk foreigners and three official dinners.

Don’t get me wrong: building strong diplomatic ties is totally awesome. However, are we as the American public really supposed to believe that the president was in “business mode” with sweet foreign leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the entire time he was there? You mean to tell me that Obama walked the beaches of Normandy with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and talked about World War II?

I don’t buy that for a second, brudes. I bet that as soon as the cameras were off, Obama was all like, “Hey, Chinese President Hu Jintao, you know where we could maybe get some burritos and watch the Chicago White Sox game?” Hu probably replied, “Totally, Obama, we’ve got a Chipotle in Beijing where we can do that. After the game we’ll see ‘Adventureland’ and then, chuck containers of rotten salsa at cars from the freeway overpass.”

Whether that was their actual discussion or simply a recap of my weekend isn’t important.

What is important is this: Obama needs to show off his diplomacy skills on “The Factor.” Talking “G-20 summit” this and “D-Day” that isn’t going to impress Senate Republicans. Hanging out with Franz Ferdinand and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at

Glastonbury totally would.

Dude, Where’s My Party?

O’Reilly doesn’t need to be all sunshine-and-lollipops while Obama is on “The Factor” because a major trait of potheads is their affiliation with radical politics. As long as O’Reilly keeps the conversation pointed toward nonviolent protests and Rage Against the Machine, he should discuss former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s prediction that voters will split from the GOP and form a major third party by 2012.

Now, I’m not really a big fan of party politics from either side. Like “The Dude” in the “The Big Lebowski,” I consider myself a nihilist; and like Ziggy Marley, I think we should all just try to live in harmony under a big “rainbow in the sky.”

However, a major third party built around values that myself and the rest of the American public hold dear would definitely be a cool thing to vote for in 2012. O’Reilly should ask Obama how he feels about those values; which include federal bailout money to pay off

Big Worm by 10 p.m. Friday, presidential pardons to get my friend Kenny out of jail, legalization of all soft drugs and White Castle restaurants on every street corner (obviously). If Obama’s not ready to make the kind of change that I really want to see, his career as president may go “up in smoke” before it ever takes off.

Topics to avoid

O’Reilly should probably steer the conversation away from the following topics, because as serious and important as they are, their dark nature would probably cause a major buzzkill: the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the mounting budget crisis, the new Defense Department, gay marriage, abortion, steroids in baseball, the “Watchmen” film, the last four episodes of “Gossip Girl,” the new Animal Collective album, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the overall lack of Little Debbie snack cakes at my house.

I know that with a little bit of my help, O’Reilly could dominate sweeps week, Obama could win back Washington politics and we as the American public can hash out all of our differences. Pun totally intended, brudes!